Cowboy? Again?

Well, here I am, in the lab, dressed up like a cowboy. It's not nearly as good as last year. Last year, I had a much better hat (I waited too long this year and wound up with a pink mylar hat, but it's the only one that fit!), and wearing a recycled costume isn't as fun as wearing one that you've never worn before.

This halloween seems to have been a bit of a bust. Last year, at least I went to a party in CLV with a bunch of foreigners. This year, we attempted to go to Rev(olutions), but no one there was dressed up. There were just the generic "sexy angel", "sexy devil", and "guy wearing a fuzzy pimp hat", and even those people made up less than a quarter of all people there. Well, maybe next year.

Tonight is a euchre tournament. I'm a bit skeptical about what the turnout is going to be. I guess we'll probably get the same turnout as regular meetings.

I tried sniping some eBay auctions the other day. One (for New Super Mario Bros.) got really pricey. I'm suprised that the other guy that was bidding on it went as high as he did. At that price, it's just about the same as getting one new from stores. I did, however, win Super Mario Kart DS for under thirty bucks after shipping (it's $45+tax in stores). I also got Donkey Kong Country in the mail the other day...good game, but it's very difficult to play on a handheld system.

I tried to trade in my Mario vs Donkey Kong at EBGames, but they would only give me a paltry ten dollars (TEN DOLLARS!), so I put it up on ebay instead. At the moment, it's up to $6.50 US, but I expect it to get up to at least $15 within the last 24 hours. I was just going to get in store credit at EB anyways, which would have one towards an overpriced new game, or an overpriced used game. eBay is the way to go, my friends.

I have only seen two other people on campus dressed up. Supposedly Molly and Quinn will be dressed up tonight, but I guess it's a bit weirder during the day. I like Halloween. I even like the fact that not many people are dressed up, because it makes my costume all that much more entertaining.

I got lucky and did most of my physics assignment in about an hour and a half. At the moment, I'm in the clear, but I've got midterms on the 7th and 9th, so I should get ahead and study for those. Especially because one is Crypto, and the other is Linguistics, the class that I've been regularly skipping. I would not be surprised to find that I have skipped about half of the classes that deal with material that will be on this next midterm, but I should be able to extract all the information I need to off of the class slides. It's just a matter of actually gathering the motivation to do so...

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the mall after class (about 11 AM) and load up on cheap halloween candy, a tradition that I hold dear to my heart. I seem to be using my car quite a bit lately. I have this system worked out: I take my bike to school, then after class I bike to the parking lot, leave my bike chained to a no parking sign, and then drive my car to my house. When I bring it back, I ride my bike back home. It saves a fair bit of time.

Even though there will be no new scores from euchre tonight, I guess I'll still have to update the website with the results of the tournament along with pictures. I was going to bring my camera, but it's really messed up. I put in fresh batteries about a week ago, and today I turned it on, took a picture, and it turned off (meaning the batteries are dead). I think it's beyond all help. Sooner or later I'll buy a new one, but I use it so rarely that I can't imagine spending too much on one. I really, really hope that someone else at the club has a camera, or Andrew gets my message and brings his own if he has one.

I'm getting really, really sick of the same old food these days. My pasta always smells like it's mouldy. Pasta sauce just tastes terrible after having it all the time. I'm too lazy to make 'real' food, and it would yield too much anyways (like meatloaf of shephard's pie or stuff like that).

Ah, back to that time again...still lots of time before Crypto, but nothing else to talk about. What to do, what to do. I guess I'll head over to RCH and play games like I did last week. Yup, sounds like a good plan.

Listening to... Refused - Liberation Frequency
Link of the moment... Time to start thinking about next year's costume!

"They taste like burning..."

Weirdest thing happened last night...I was playing Super Mario Strikers with the roommates (which seems to be a nightly event these days...Andrew and I ALWAYS manage to beat John and Hugh by one or two points), and I suddenly got a slight stinging pain in my stomach. Over the course of a minute, the pain grew ever more painful until I thought I was going to explode. I had to call a timeout midway through the game and take a breather. It went away through some processes that shouldn't be discussed in public, but the rest of the night I was still a bit woozy (luckily this was before bedtime so it didn't cause me any downtime). Today I feel better but my legs are oddly sore. I suppose it doesn't sound like that odd a story to you, but I've never really had that sort of pain come from out of nowhere and build up so strongly over the course of a minute. I hope it doesn't come back anytime soon...

After class on Thursday, I told Nathalie that I would have one of two weekends. Either I would find some motivation after taking the week easy and study for my midterm and get lots of progress on my CO485 assignment, or I would do absolutely no work over the weekend. Unfortunately, this last weekend fell under the second category. I'm just coming off about 84 hours (three and a half days for anyone who doesn't feel like dividing by 24) of doing no work. Normally I have class Monday, but yesterday was just midterm review, so I decided I wasn't about to wake up at 8:30 for that. I wasted all that time, but I'm not too disappointed about it. I mean, what's going to come of it? I really don't think I could fail any of my courses unless I really let myself go. If the graph theory midterm is half as easy as I hope it will be, I should be able to do it all on the spot without studying (unless we are asked to recite a proof or definition, but it's only 45 minutes long so I doubt it).

I'm in a different lab today, the MFCF Unix lab on the third floor. It's much emptier in here than the 2nd floor, but they have the air conditioner going all the time and it's effing freezing in here. I'll head back to old faithful next week, I think.

Well, I 'beat' Mario vs Donkey Kong 2 yesterday (that is, I beat the last boss but there are extra levels I could do), and I doubt I'll play it again, so I'm going to trade it in to EBGames for $17US (or at least that's what they say they'll give me on the american website), and get a new game. I realize there's really not much of a used game market for DS games yet, but I only need enough games to play until Xmas, then I'll get hooked up from mom. Oh yeah, I exchanged my DS for one with no dead pixels (that I have noticed yet).

I don't know what's going on for Halloween. I still have to get a hat for my costume, and I've got less than a week to do it. That is, if we're even going out for Halloween this weekend. We really can't find any good places to go. The university only has something going on on the Tuesday. Rev is 21+, excluding Hugh, and the only other two places I've found events for are Abstract and Elements, neither of which exhibit genres that everyone else is very fond of (alternative and electronica, respectively). I'm not too thrilled about going clubbing myself, but I like getting dressed up for Halloween. Well, at least I'll have the euchre club tournament to dress up for...

This crypto assignment is just making me feel stupid. It's way too difficult. The difficulty of this course is one of the reasons that I feel like grad studies aren't in my future. I'll be meeting up with Nathalie today, and we'll probably talk about the assignment, but the poor girl can't work miracles. I think I'll just put another hour or two into working on this assignment and then submit what I have for whatever pity marks the prof wants to give me.

I'm really tired right now...but I know I'll never find a couch in the SLC to sleep on. That was one nice thing about the summer term: you could always find a couch to sleep on in the SLC. Now I've got to bring myself low enough to sleep in the Math Comfy Lounge. I've heard stories of the couches in that room.

Hence ends another summary of Kevin's life, one week at a time.

Listening to... FBLA II - Helmet
Link of the moment... Honestly? I didn't like it. Shame, Brett Ratner...

$220 later...

Given that I'll be getting $500 from marking, and I have renewed my $1000 scholarship for yet another year, I felt as though I deserved to treat myself to something, as money was burning a hole in my pocket. I forget where I got the idea from, but recently found myself with an urge to get a Nintendo DS. So I did.

The service at FutureShop was terrible as usual, but they had a deal where I could get a game for $10 with the system. I wound up going with Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, which is a pretty decent game, but I'll need to invest in some more titles sometime soon. I started playing and noticed a dead (blue) pixel on the right side of the top screen. I threw out some of the packaging, but I'm hoping if I bring the DS along with the box with the same serial #, I can exchange it at FShop. It's not a terrible error, but if I'm going to pay $160 for something, I might as well get something without any flaws.

Along with my new system purchase, I got Super Mario Strikers for GC, because it underwent a recent price drop. It's a pretty decent multiplayer game, but single player doesn't have that same feeling. As far as a mario game goes, I feel it's sort of lacking. More play modes and minigames would have been nice as well as unique fields to play on and unlockable content (new captains and sidekicks perhaps?). Now I bide my time until Mario Power Tennis gets its price chopped...

Well I guess I'm sort of caught up now. I've got a few assignment deadlines coming up, but I have enough time to relax for a while. I got my ENGL midterm back: I scored an 84.5%. I guess that's ok, but it's below my peronal goal of 87%. Next is CO342...I think I have a good feeling about that midterm. I understand Graph Theory pretty well, and now we're getting into Vector Spaces, which I've already (more or less) covered in Rings and Group Theory. I only got 33/40 on the last assigment, so I've got to make sure I don't make any errors on this next one.

The other day, John Julie and I wanted to play kickball. We went to the school nearest my house, and sure enough, the very first kick of the game resulted in Julie kicking the ball onto the roof of the school. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon getting a ladder from Julie's house and getting the ball. It was an adventure to say the least. After that, the three of us went to Red Lobster to celebrate getting the ball. Well, in reality, we all just wanted to go to Red Lobster.

I updated the euchre website! Now we have the house rules listed, the current scores for the members, and some of my personal tips on the strategy page. Quinn and I had a dispute over the colour scheme of the site. We decided Molly's vote should be the deciding vote, and unfortunately she went with him on it. I still completey stand by my argument, but I'm willing to concede the point since we agreed Molly would have the final say. I should start my own Euchre Club, one that's not color-blind...

It's been almost two weeks since I played euchre. I'm dying to take some tricks! Now that midterms are starting, I wonder if our member turnout is going to be lower than usual. Well, so long as we have enough for at least one table, I guess it doesn't really matter.

I think my DS purchase is going to push back my Wii purchase...I'm not sure if I can justify buying so many systems in such a short period of time. The way I figure, I'll be getting a Wii for Christmas; it's just a matter of who is paying for it.

Well, I think I've run out of things to say. I'll head over to RCH and play my DS until Nathalie shows up.

Listening to... AFI - File 13
Link of the moment... Any thoughts on what I should buy next?

Oh Phil, come back again!

Ah, good old Phil. It was more than a pleasure to hang out with him again. There was a point where we were laughing so hard I thought I was going to vomit. That's how I'll always remember Phil.

I have an urge to have another LAN party. I can't remember what the largest number of computers I've had in my basement was...not nearly 8, but perhaps 5 or 6. I hope to do it again next summer. I'd like to give Battlefield 1942 a try. The ever-changing control-point mode seems a lot better than multiple, short rounds as in Counter-Strike. On top of that, you can set an entire team of bots in 1942 to make it a co-op affair with large teams, whereas in CS, the best you can hope for is a 2v2 battle. One of these days, I'd like too see a 7-8 player match of Starcraft. I have a feeling there might be some bitter feelings on alliance betrayals, though. Oh! And I'd have some Super Smash Brothers going on the Wii on the bigscreen, too! Ah, what dreams I have.

Well, that speed dating hookup is definitely not happening. I still haven't received a reply, so I don't expect to get one anytime soon. In my mind, the Warrior Weekends staff was unable to read her email address and screwed it up, and she's thinking about me all the time, but I just tell myself that to keep my self-image up.

I signed up for Lavalife while I was at home, and sent a smile to someone today. I read a good quote that makes me feel a little less like a loser resorting to online dating: "Twenty years from now, the idea that someone looking for love without looking for it online will be silly, akin to skipping the card catalog to instead wander the stacks because 'the right books are found only by accident.' " (courtesy Wired magazine, 2002). Unfortunately, my actions are limited unless I feel like paying for services (not bloody likely).

The roommies are out at Oktoberfest right now. They'll get back in about an hour, then we party down and annoy the neighbours. Until then, I bide my time. I've done my marking, so I'm giving myself a little break with my blog. I plan to finish Physics tomorrow, and then perhaps graph theory and/or relaxing on Sunday. On Monday, I've got to update the euchre stats and website, but that shouldn't take very long.

I went to Nathalie and Steve's apartment the other day for lunch, before classes to get some notes. Man, her place is pimped out! They've got all new furniture, and the layout is nothing short of superb. Now I can't wait to get my own apartment! Of course, to do that I'll have to find a good job, so I guess I'll have to do this one step at a time.

I'm still very much up in the air about grad studies. For my own good, I think I'll make a little Pro/Con list right now.
Pros:
-Another year to 'relax' before finding real work
-Masters degree will get me a higher paying job (or so I'm expecting)
-Masters makes me look really smart, garners pride from parents
-Increases sense of self-satisfaction

Cons:
-Most friends will no longer be in Waterloo
-Must live in student housing one more year
-Difficult work, courses, and thesis
-Increases chances of going on random killing spree due to stress

Neither of these options really has an outstanding argument. I'm just not sure what I want to do yet. There are some aspects of studying mathematics that I enjoy, and some that I do not.

Listening to... Static-X - I'm With Stupid
Link of the moment... Soon to be regularly updated by me. I'll even throw in some strategy articles, if I have the time.

Rainy day rant

It's raining out and I don't have an umbrella, so I'm going to make a post in hopes that in the time I spend here, the heavens will cry out all their tears. It's not going to be a general post though, I'm going to post a slight rant, instead.

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about how Microsoft's Vista is ripping off Apple's Leopard/Tiger/Jaguar operating system. From articles online to articles in imprint (mostly articles, I guess), people are reprimanding Microsoft for 'stealing' Apple's innovations. Such features as the desktop search (versus Apple's Spotlight) have been accused of being stolen from Apple's OSX.

While I don't argue that Microsoft is not paving new ground by implementing these technologies, I think they are in the right to do so. It is in Microsoft's best interest to deliver what people want, while the creator of these things should not matter. Imagine if only Toyotas had CD players, only Fords had seatbelts, and only Hondas had trunks. People want all these features in one package. When a technology comes about and is touted as an improvement, it becomes the norm. People aren't going to want to have to choose between two operating systems, both offering something they need, nor will they want both. They want everything they need in one package, and if more than one such OS exists, then they can choose based on the minor differences between them.

Meh, I'm not sure if I'm completely convinced with my argument, but at least I wasted a good half hour.

Aparently I'm too ugly for the other three

I've been working myself silly lately, but I'm not entirely sure I've really made as much progress as I should have. I did my marking all in the first two days, and did my physics assignment in the course of about a day, but CO485 is killing me. I'm not sure when the last time was that I spent so much time on an assignment. I have a feeling I'll be handing it in with some questions left unanswered. I'm hoping to confer with Nathalie today, but I'm not sure if she's looked at the entire assignment. It looks like the tables might be turned for a change, where I'm the one who has it done way ahead of time.

Clubs days went well. Waking up early enough to be on campus at 8:30 was no fun, but it's not as though I was put under any strenuous work. We got at least 70 new people sign up, and it's very likely that another 20 came after I left on Friday before lunch. Of those, I'm not sure how many will actually show up to meetings, but it looks like we should have a turnout at least as large as other terms.

I think the weekend is where all my juicy info comes from. On Saturday, I went to the Watsfic games day, at abuot 4-5PM. There were a fair number of people already playing game. I wouldn't say that I got an overly warm welcome, but I made myself visible enough to warrant being invited to play a game (Princes of Florence). None of us knew how to play, save one or two of the five players, so I didn't feel like I was slowing things down too much. I came in dead last, by a fair margin, but I enjoyed learning the game.

During the game, Nicole phoned because she was in town. I told her I could meet up with her in the plaza for supper at about 8, and we did. At 9PM, I headed over to the speed dating event and signed up. They told me I'd be in the "second round", so I played some DDR for a while with Nicole and Carissa. After working up a sweat, I headed back to wait for the call. Eventually, they herded us in, ten guys and ten girls. Each 'date' lasted only three minutes, and I found it difficult to get a good impression from each girl. After all was said and done, I gave a "yes" to four of the girls, and eagerly awaited a reply from the Warrior Weekends staff. After that, John and Julie appeared as if from nowhere, and they said they phoned Nicole as they were on their way back from bowling. We headed home (I opted out of Superman Returns), and started watching LotR: tTT on CBC. Not much else to say about that.

Yesterday, I got a reply from WW, saying that I got one match, so now I've got the email of a girl who supposedly would like to get to know me a little better. Unfortunately, I'm pretty well busy until next weekend, what with thanksgiving leaving me little time to get any assignments or midterm studying done.

There's a new show in my Monday line-up: Heroes. I caught the first episode, and found myself a little intrigued. To be honest, I found the first episode pretty dull, but I'm curious to see where the series is headed. The second episode did a bit more to catch my curiosity, and I figure since it's on right after Prison Break, I might as well give it a go. I've realized that Monday is my TV night, as there's not really much else on any other night. Sure, I'll watch CSI if I'm home on Thursdays, but it's not enough to say "no, I don't want to miss CSI" if someone has a better idea. Family Guy on Sunday is the highlight of my week as well, but half an hour isn't much of a line-up.

I started fiddling a bit with my euchre system. I've got two spreadsheets filled with paid members and game scores, as well as a score sheet to bring to meetings. I've yet to set up the database aspect of it yet, but I don't think there's any need to have stats after only one meeting.

I think I had the epiphany the other day that I enjoy graph theory the most out of all the CO disciplines. I enjoy doing math-like proofs, and graph theory is chock-full of that stuff. I'm disappointed that I'm unable to take CO442, as it's only offered in the fall term, and I'm currently doing my last fall term of my undergraduate degree. I'm still debating donig grad studies. Unfortunately, I'd be forced to take some courses I'd rather not (optimization courses, etc). Isn't that kind of funny to think about? Not only am I interested in Math, and not only am I interested in Combinatorics and Optimizatin, but I'm interested in Graph Theory. I'm sure that most people in the world didn't know that math could be broken down into so many disciplines.

Tomorrow there is a lunch for students and staff in CO, giving the students a chance to meet some of the profs. I'm going, mostly for the fact that it's a free lunch. I also realize, though, that if I apply for grad studies, I'll need three reference letters. I think my best bet is going to be with Willard and Tasic, since I've had two classes with them each, and I did very well in all four of those courses. For the last one, I'll probably choose either Richter or Menezes, since they're teaching me this term. Whatever...I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Well, I've spent entirely too much time NOT working on my CO485 assignment, so I'm gonig to head over to RCH and work on that until the class starts.

I don't know when I'll update next, since I'll be in Tbay next Tuesday, but it shan't be very long.

Listening to... Refuse Resist - Sepultura
Link of the moment... I signed up for this stupid shit by request, but I'll NOT be one of the 60% that log in daily, nor of the 85% that log in weekly.